High-rate Plastic Deformation of Nanocrystalline Tantalum to Large Strains: Molecular Dynamics Simulation

Here we use large-scale molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of the high-rate deformation of nanocrystalline tantalum to investigate the processes associated with plastic deformation for strains up to 100%. We use initial atomic configurations that were produced through simulations of solidification in the work of Streitz et al [Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, (2006) 225701]. These 3D polycrystalline systems have typical grain sizes of 10-20 nm. We also study a rapidly quenched liquid (amorphous solid) tantalum. We apply a constant volume (isochoric), constant temperature (isothermal) shear deformation over a range of strain rates, and compute the resulting stress-strain curves to large strains for both uniaxial and biaxial compression. We study the rate dependence and identify plastic deformation mechanisms. The identification of the mechanisms is facilitated through a novel technique that computes the local grain orientation, returning it as a quaternion for each atom. We find both dislocation and twinning processes are important, and they interact in the weak strain hardening in these extremely fine-grained microstructures.